Here to Help

H-Handsome

(TWs: Pretty much the same as most other chapters ok, if you've gotten this far then you know what this story is about. The mentions of child abuse/neglect as well the potential ED trigger will be in every chapter as they have been so far, so I'll just be warning about any NEW triggers now. Speaking of which, no new triggers for this chapter, this thing is 90% fluff man. We need it after the angst of the last chapter haha)

Steve and Bucky came to the dining room that morning while I was in the middle of making breakfast. I'd only been up for half an hour before them, but Steve still made the "I swear if you spent all night in the lab again I'm gonna kill you" face.

"Oh don't look at me like that," I said, but Steve continued to glare at me. It wasn't a very effective glare, as his eyes were still bleary with sleep, and he shrugged after a moment, apparently too tired to argue. Bucky dragged him to the table where he promptly laid his head on Steve's shoulder and closed his eyes as though to go back to sleep.

"Whatcha makin'?" Steve mumbled from his seat.

"Pancakes. I know you love those, huh Steve?" I said, turning to give him a snarky grin. Steve grunted, his eyes drooping. "Jeez you guys must be pretty jetlagged. You can go back to sleep if you want, I still have eggs and bacon to make so I can wake you up in about half an hour."

"Nope. Can't," Bucky groaned, taking his head off Steve's shoulder and shaking it doggedly, trying to wake himself up.

"We have things we need to talk about," Steve said. "Yesterday was... a lot."

I sighed.

"Yeah. You talked to Peter, Bucky talked to me, and then Wade shows up in the middle of the fuckin' night," I said and I pinched the bridge of my nose. "God I feel like such an ass for attacking him."

"It's alright, you thought Peter's Aunt had hired him to look for Peter, it's a reasonable reaction," Bucky said. "Me and Steve thought the same exact thing, especially since we'd just been talking about his aunt when we heard the blast."

"Yeah but I should've tried to figure out what he wanted before I started blasting at him. I didn't try to understand him at all. I just hit him with the repulsor without thinking," I said.

"You were thinking," Steve said. "You were thinking about Peter."

At that I gave a small sigh and a nod. It's true, I was only trying to protect Peter, but I still felt like a jerk for attacking a kid, especially one who had only wanted to help his friend.

"So you know what we have to do with Wade, right?" Steve said.

"Of course. Only option really," I said.

"Right."

"And we never got a chance to talk about what you and Peter discussed, but do you have a plan?" I asked Steve.

"Ah, yes, but um... Peter wants you to know that there's another reason he hides food," Steve said. I froze at that.

"He... he told you something?" I said.

"Yeah. He said he told you that it's a habit from living with his Aunt, right?"

"Right."

"And you know he has a hard time telling if he's eaten enough, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it extends a bit beyond that. Peter told me that sometimes when he gets hungry, he panics and thinks he's starving again. Like he was in the alleyway or at his Aunt's apartment. He hides food in hopes he won't panic the next time he gets hungry. It's like a safety net: he's trying to reassure himself that he has food around that's his and that nobody else can take from him," Steve said. I didn't say anything for a moment, only sighing and flipping more pancakes onto the stack.